The present invention relates to a recording device for recording image information by transferring a toner image onto a paper sheet.
An electrostatic copying device based on the xerographic principle (electrostatic photography) as a recording device for recording image information by transferring a toner image onto a paper sheet is well known. In such an electrostatic copying device, a photosensitive material is first uniformly charged, and then an image is projected thereonto with an optical system to form an electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive material. Upon developing the electrostatic latent image with toner particles, a toner image is produced. The toner image thus produced is transferred to a paper sheet and fixed with a fixing device. A recorded image is thus produced.
In this device it is possible to use ordinary paper for the recording medium, and it is very easy to obtain not only an unscaled (same size as original) reproduced image, but also an enlarged or reduced image simply by changing the magnification of the optical system.
The conventional device described above, however, has defects. One such defect is the fact that, when a plurality of copies of an original are required, a corresponding number of copying operations must be performed. Another is that, due to the way in which the optical image is projected onto the photosensitive material, it is impossible or at least difficult to vary the recorded image in ways other than by varying the of magnification, such as reversing the image or partially shifting the image.
In view of the drawbacks mentioned above, an object of the present invention is to provide a recording device which is capable not only of producing plural copies of an original image using only a single readout operation, but also of processing the image without the above-noted drawbacks inherent in the conventional system.